Spring Balcony Cost Check: How to Save Up to €200 per Season with 3–5 Vegetables

Spring Balcony Cost Check: The Savings Result Up Front

With a small balcony and 3–5 easy vegetables, you can realistically save €80–€200 per season. You’ll need a starting budget of about €50–€80 and you’ll need to use your harvest consistently in your weekly meal plan.

How the savings happen: assumptions and scope

So you can calculate clearly, we’ll use simple, realistic values. Prices are averages from discount and supermarket store brands.

• Balcony size: approx. 3–6 m² (typical city balcony)
• Household: single or 2–3 people
• Type: growing in pots and balcony planters
• Time period: one season (spring to early fall, about 5–6 months)
• Water & fertilizer: tap water, basic liquid fertilizer from a discount store

Important: Harvest quantities are conservatively estimated. You may get more, but we’d rather calculate safely. That way you see what’s truly realistic.

Master table: Which balcony plant saves how much money?

The table shows 8 typical balcony plants with: upfront costs, ongoing costs, harvest, supermarket prices, savings, and when your basic setup pays for itself.

What does this mean for your wallet?

If you intentionally choose the high-savings plants, a small starter set could look like this:

• 1 pot of cocktail tomatoes
• 2 balcony planters of leaf lettuce
• 3 pots of herb mix
• 1 pot of chives

You’ll pay roughly:

• Upfront costs: approx. €70–€80 (pots, planters, soil, seeds/seedlings)
• Ongoing costs per season: approx. €10–€12 (water, fertilizer)

With conservative estimates, the supermarket equivalent is about €90–€120 per season. Your real savings in the first year are then around €10–€40. In the following years, you already own the pots and planters. Then you can save €60–€120 per season because you’ll mainly be paying for soil refresh, seeds, and fertilizer.

If you later add strawberries or bell peppers, it’s easy to reach €80–€200 in savings per season, depending on balcony size and how consistently you use the harvest.

Step 1: Create a mini balcony budget in your household ledger

Treat your balcony like a small project. That way you keep cost control and clearly see what you save.

• Plan a starting budget of €50–€80 for the first spring.
• Record in your household ledger: “Balcony vegetables – basic setup.”
• Book pots, planters, and good soil as a one-time investment, not as “fun.”
• Track ongoing expenses like fertilizer and water as “Balcony – ongoing.”

Your advantage: you immediately see how much money is flowing into the balcony. And later you can offset it against what you didn’t have to buy at the supermarket.

Step 2: Start with a maximum of 3 high-savings crops

Overcrowded balconies cost a lot and often create stress. For your wallet, a clear, simple start is better.

Recommended starter combo with a savings focus:

• Cocktail tomatoes – high value per kilo, very versatile (salad, pasta, sandwiches).
• Leaf lettuce mix – regularly replaces store-bought heads of lettuce.
• Herb mix – replaces expensive small herb pots or bunches.

Optional add-on:

• Chives – perennial, very inexpensive, great for dips, scrambled eggs, soups.

How you save in practice:

• You buy bagged salads or heads of lettuce less often.
• You skip pricey fresh herbs at the supermarket.
• You buy fewer ready-made sauces because you can season with tomatoes and herbs yourself.

Step 3: Plan fixed harvest days and matching meals

You only truly save money if you actually eat your harvest. Otherwise it’s expensive decor.

How to plan smart:

• Pick 1–2 fixed “harvest days” per week, for example Wednesday and Saturday.
• Check the balcony beforehand: what’s ripe? what needs to be used up?
• Plan your weekly meals around that, for example:
• • Big mixed salad (lettuce, tomatoes, herbs)
  • Pasta with tomato-herb sauce
  • Vegetable soup with chives or herbs
• Use leftovers the next day, e.g., as lunch for work or school.

Your advantage: you intentionally buy less fresh produce “just in case” that later spoils in the fridge. That’s how you turn theoretical savings into real lower spending.

Step 4: Use pots and soil for multiple years

The biggest expense is usually the basic setup. If you use it wisely, your fixed costs drop each year.

• Buy sturdy pots and planters that last several years.
• Don’t throw out all the soil after the season.
• You can reuse part of the soil the next year:
• • Sift old soil, remove thick roots and debris.
  • Mix with fresh soil (e.g., 50% old, 50% new).
  • Add a bit of fertilizer or compost.

This significantly reduces your annual balcony costs. Instead of buying everything new every year, you’ll mainly pay for soil refresh, seeds, and fertilizer. That can turn €70–€80 in start-up costs into just €20–€30 per year.

Step 5: Make the savings visible in your household ledger

Many people underestimate how much a balcony garden really saves. If you write it down, you’ll see your return in black and white.

Here’s how:

• Create a separate line: “Grocery purchases avoided thanks to balcony.”
• Once a month, estimate:
• • How many heads of lettuce would I have bought without the balcony?
  • How many bunches of herbs did I replace?
  • How many clamshells of tomatoes or strawberries?
• Calculate roughly using typical supermarket prices (e.g., €1.50 per bunch of herbs, €4 per clamshell of cocktail tomatoes).
• Enter the total as “saved” in your household ledger.

Example for one month in peak season:

• Replace 4 heads of lettuce → 4 × €1.50 = €6
• Replace 4 bunches of herbs → 4 × €1.50 = €6
• Replace 2 clamshells of cocktail tomatoes → 2 × €4 = €8

That alone is already €20 saved in a month. Over 4–5 strong months per year, you quickly reach €80–€100. With additional plants like zucchini or strawberries, the amount increases.

How to take the first step today

You don’t have to start perfectly. What matters is that you start and keep an eye on your spending.

• Write in your household ledger right now: “Balcony vegetables – budget: €60.”
• Choose 2–3 savings plants (tomatoes, lettuce, herbs).
• Schedule 1–2 hours this weekend for shopping and planting.
• Pick a fixed harvest day and put it on your calendar.

If you follow these steps, your balcony becomes a small, manageable source of savings. You’ll eat fresher, waste less, and you’ll see in your household ledger exactly how your effort pays off in euros.